MONTVILLE — At the end of the first half of their Eastern Connecticut Conference semifinal soccer match Wednesday, a player from Waterford and from Norwich Free Academy each received yellow cards.

Unfortunately for the NFA side, it was the second yellow card of the match on the same player.

On the field during the half, a little confusion presented itself. Officials knew the player was ejected from the match, but didn’t whether if it also meant the Wildcats had to play a man down in the second half.

With no rule book immediately on site, officials started the second half 11-on-11. But after 9 minutes, 17 seconds had passed, officials stopped the match, consulted a rule book that had been delivered and ordered NFA to go a man down.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats actually played better the remainder of the match, forced overtime and left Montville High School with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Waterford Wednesday to advance to the championship tilt against second-seeded East Lyme at 7 p.m. on Friday also at Montville.

“It’s all about the heart, man,” NFA senior Mason Rivera said. “Having 10 kids in, all of us had the heart to win it and we worked together and got the ‘W.’ ”

It was Rivera who got the game-winner just 56 seconds into the second extra period. Rivera set himself up on the near post to try and receive a throw-in from Izaak Miller.

“We’ve been working on that play for awhile because we have a few kids who can throw it long,” Rivera said. “My job is to get to the front post and I was able to get up — the (Waterford) keeper isn’t that tall — and I looked back post (headed it) and it went in.”

Interesting calls

It was a wild start to the match with the ball just not bouncing the Lancers way.

Waterford appeared to have scored just 3 minutes, 20 seconds in, but a shot by Aaron Schwartz that Seth Strader appeared to have caught inside the net was denied by an offsides call.

Just five minutes later, Schwartz got ahead of the field and was open on goal, but his shot flew over the crossbar.

The Wildcats dodged those two bullets and delivered one of their own. Izaak Miller beat all but one Waterford defender down the field, but a miscommunication between the defender and keeper Austin Schwartz allowed Miller to get between the two and also get to the ball. The NFA senior poked it home to put the Wildcats up 1-0 with 29 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first half.

Goal taken away

Page 2 of 2 - In this case, bad things came in threes for the Waterford senior. Just five minutes later, Schwartz came in on the left side of Strader, but could only get off a weak shot as he was pulled down from behind. Officials blew the play dead and awarded Schwartz a penalty kick. But his shot went right to Strader who knocked it down, and then pounced on it before it could get behind him and over the line.

But Schwartz was resilient, again getting behind the defense to attack the goal. Finally, the senior struck paydirt as his shot easily found its way inside the far post to tie the game.

Schwartz then added another beauty when he slapped a shot past Strader with 11:59 left in the half.

NFA answered off the ensuing touch at midfield when junior Colby Coombs broke in off the right side and put the ball into the net just 38 seconds later.

“It just felt like a tournament game to me,” said NFA coach Rob Briones said. “The pride, the desire, the heart and leadership of the players. I’m just so proud. Playing down a man in a semifinal takes a lot.”

Waterford coach Joe Mendonca Jr. said the adversity actually seemed to up the level of the Wildcats’ play.

“They did a fantastic job of breaking up our rhythm, you have to give them credit,” Mendonca said. “The game of soccer is kind of funny. When a team goes a man down, they, typically, work harder and that was the case here.”

East Lyme wins

STONINGTON — Griffin Woods and Nate Delesdernier each scored a second-half goal and No. 3 East Lyme advanced to Friday’s title game with a 2-1 victory over seventh-seeded Stonington. Zach Kozakowski made two saves for the Vikings (12-1-5). Leonardo Aguirre scored for the Bears (11-5-2).